Russian police have been enforcing the country’s controversial anti-LGBT legislation by arresting people for dressing in ways that made them “look too gay”.

“Trying to arouse interest in non-traditional sexual relations” has been considered a crime in Russia for over a decade, but the law was usually enforced against individuals and organizations that published and promoted LGBT “propaganda”. However, a recent analysis of court documentation by an independent news outlet revealed that the Kremlin’s strategy to promote ‘traditional values’ now includes detaining and fining people for “looking too gay”. The Russian news website Verstka revealed an incident that occurred back in February of last year but was never covered by the media in which eight individuals were detained by police for wearing clothing that promoted “non-traditional sexual relations”.

Photo: Kirill Kruglikov/Unsplash

During a raid in a nightclub in the city of Tula, Russian police detained and later fined a group of men suspected of promoting an LGBT agenda. According to the photos and description discovered in Vertska’s recent court document analysis, one of the offenders had “pink socks, an unbuttoned kimono over his shoulders, his hair dyed bright orange, and red tattoos on his face,” while another had “crosses of black tape glued to his nipples” and wore a “women’s style corset”.

“Although a man, he was wearing a short top covering his chest, black leather shorts above the knee, on which there were several chain-shaped ornaments and fishnet tights,” police described another suspect.

The Russian Court reportedly agreed that “the appearance of the detainees was inconsistent with the image of a man of traditional sexual orientation,” and fined two of them 50,000 rubles ($467). The bartender of the raided club claimed he was a goth to explain why he had turquoise hair, eyebrow piercings, and a black t-shirt rolled up to his chest.

Back in 2019, we wrote about a Russian iPhone user who sued Apple for allegedly turning him gay.